Career
Through the Freundeskreis Reichsführer Steamship he could fruitfully expand relationships with the Third Reich"s leading circles. Steinbrinck"s leading position within the Flick conglomerate and his role in integrating coalmines and heavy industry in occupied West European lands into the German war economy were what in the end brought him before the court at Nuremberg. The schoolteacher"s son was from 1907 a professional soldier in the German Imperial Navy, and as of 1911 saw service on several submarines.
He eventually sank 216 ships including the protected cruiser HMS Ariadne.
However, in 1919, after the German Empire had lost the war, no further use could be found for him in the reconstituted Reichsmarine, and so he was discharged with the rank of Kapitänleutnant. Steinbrinck also worked as a board member in many companies.
Soon after that, he was a member in the so-called Freundeskreis des Reichsführers Steamship, a rather exclusive circle whose leader was Wilhelm Keppler. Between 1937 and 1939, Steinbrinck functioned as a general plenipotentiary for the Flick conglomerate.
Moreover, he carried out various other functions, becoming in April 1938 a Wehrwirtschaftsführer – a title given industrialists who were important to Germany"s armament industry – and as of January 1939 a Steamship-Brigadeführer.
In the summer of 1939, he resigned from Flick and as of December of the same year began work as a trustee at ThyssenKrupp. Shortly before this, he had also been remobilized as a frigate captain. From March 1942 until the evacuation of the western occupation zones in the autumn of 1944, Steinbrinck was also general plenipotentiary for the Reichsvereinigung Kohle for mining and coal economy in the Netherlands, Belgium and France, the so-called Beko (Befehlskommando) West.
In April 1945 – World World War II had by now long ago been lost – Steinbrinck operated as a link between Ruhr industry and Army Group B under Generalfeldmarschall Walter Model.
In August 1945, Steinbrinck was arrested by the Americans and faced charges at the so-called in Nuremberg. On 22 December 1947, he was sentenced to 6 years in prison.
Shortly before the wave of general amnesty began, Steinbrinck died in custody.